Larry Kudlow: I'm OK With 'Emotional' Obama Using N-Word

A number of people are criticizing President Barack Obama over his use of the N-word as he discussed race relations in the United States — but renowned economist Larry Kudlow isn't one of them.

I'm going to leave the president alone on this," Kudlow, a CNBC senior contributor, said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"He's doing what he feels emotionally he needs to do. I don't have a problem with it."

In an interview with comedian Marc Maron, the commander-in-chief used the N-word as he discussed the murders of nine African American churchgoers by a white racist in Charleston, South Carolina, and said he believes the United States has not overcome its history of racism.

"Racism, we are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say [the N-word] in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior," Obama said.

Kudlow, who hosts the nationally-syndicated radio program, "The Larry Kudlow Show," said Obama's inflammatory language is understandable.

"He's getting very emotional. This is an emotional issue, Charleston. It's a terrible thing," he told Steve Malzberg.

"It's a hate crime. A racial crime. It's also a very sick kid taking violent drugs. The whole story is awful."

Dylann Roof, 21, who authorities say spent an hour in Bible study with parishioners at the nearly 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church before opening fire on Wednesday night, appeared via video feed before a magistrate judge who on Friday ordered him held without bond.

Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder and a weapons offense.

Federal authorities are investigating the deadly violence as a hate crime and an act of terrorism by Roof, who posed with the Confederate flag in photos posted online.